Obama Seeks Latino Vote With $20 Million Effort

WASHINGTON (AP) – Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee want the Hispanic vote.

The Obama campaign said today that $20 million will be set aside to target and mobilize Hispanic voters in the presidential election this fall.

Temo Figueroa is the director of Latino voting for the Obama campaign. He says the money will go to all 50 states but will favor swing states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Florida.

Figueroa says the four states were picked based on their Hispanic electorate, the closeness of the states in previous elections and the operations the campaign has put together in each.

During the last presidential election, Hispanics in key swing states such as these represented anywhere from 8 percent to more than 30 percent of voters, according to exit polls.

A recent national survey by the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center showed that 66 percent of Hispanic registered voters supported Obama. That’s compared to 23 percent for Republican John McCain. The other 11 percent were undecided.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)